Should you be elected, what are three specific areas you’d like to change, address, improve or further research, and how specifically would you go about it?: Opiate crisis: Our opiate crisis is a public health concern, not a crime wave. In order to begin healing, we need massive public education campaigns for everyone... not just those suffering from addiction and their families, but also the folks who think addiction is a conscious decision. We can’t begin healing when too much of our population doesn’t understand the complexity of this crisis. As we educate the population, we need to partner with community resources that support those with addiction and their families and ensure they have the information and resources to provide the highest, most successful level of help. We must ensure that there is no fear of coming forward for help, whether it is a medical emergency or a person ready to make the commitment to beat addiction, by providing safe harbor and assuring everyone involved that they will not be arrested when they do the right thing. And, importantly, we need to consider how we address potential new addiction and those who are in recovery from addiction. For too long, we have provided support only during active addiction, leaving people on their own once the visible symptoms are gone. Mental health services for those actively in recovery, education for those taking prescribed opiates, and support groups for friends and family are all part of healing from this crisis, and the city needs to play a central role in all of it. Transparency and efficiency: Most cities and school districts have been providing digital access to council and board meetings for several years. The city of Elyria does not record or stream council meetings to the public, and doesn’t even currently publish meeting minutes to the city website with any consistency. The city website itself is outdated, contains broken links, and has extremely limited functionality. Within my first 100 days, I will propose a robust and cost-effective solution to revamp our city’s digital presence and make our inner workings as transparent as possible. Every resident has a right to see every meeting, even if they work Monday nights or don’t have access to reliable transportation. We also deserve to know how every tax dollar is spent so that our residents can look for inefficiencies and mistakes and hold public officials accountable. Many cities are participating in the Open Data project to have their books online and searchable, providing a new level of transparency to taxation and spending. Within my first term, I will partner with cities who have done this to find our best path forward. Finally, when all this information becomes transparent, we need a responsive city government to address concerns and answer questions. I will make myself available via social media, text messaging, email, and town halls to hear resident concerns on a very consistent basis and I will encourage my colleagues to do the same. Homelessness and vacant properties: Certain cities and states have done the math, and the reality is no longer debatable: It is more expensive to a city to allow homeless residents to remain homeless than it is to simply provide them with housing. The associated costs of policing, healthcare, and more make homelessness an expensive situation for a city, not to mention the moral cost of allowing such a thing. Elyria has a large vacant housing stock and a large homeless population. Across the country, these two problems are increasingly seen as cancelling each other out. By providing homes to homeless populations, areas such as Utah and Colorado have reduced costs to the city, provided dignity to their formerly homeless populations, and cleaned up properties that were falling into disrepair. I would like to take these successful programs one step further by providing the tools and training required to fix up these properties, thus instilling a sense of ownership to the new resident as well as teaching them a new marketable skillset, important in a city with an older housing stock such as that in Elyria.

Whether for past accomplishments or future goals, why should voters elect you?: For more than a decade, the leadership in Elyria has remained mostly unchanged, and the city has stagnated. Younger people are leaving the city and employers are leaving with them. In order to adapt and thrive, our city needs fresh leadership, full transparency, and an eye toward the future. I will be the most accessible, responsive councilperson in the city, and I will fight to make sure every resident’s voice is heard. I will work hard to promote a fully transparent and efficient city government with open books and open lines of communication while improving city services that build up our population. I am running because I see so much potential in our city, and with an action-oriented, progressive mindset, we can unlock that potential together.